HC Deb 16 July 1992 vol 211 c947W

Before housing costs:

1979 1981 1987 1988–89
£ £ £ £
Bottom 20 per cent. 96 94 100 100
Top 20 per cent. 289 298 376 402

After housing costs:

1979 1981 1987 1988–89
£ £ £ £
Bottom 20 per cent. 81 78 80 81
Top 20 per cent. 253 262 329 355

Ms. Corston

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the mean net disposable income, at 1989 prices, of the poorest 10 per cent. and 20 per cent. of United Kingdom households combined for each year 1979 to 1989, inclusive, before and after equivalisation and before and after taking housing costs into account, when ranked respectively(a) without adding the full value of free and subsidised school meals (b) adding that value and(c) adding that value and also the value in kind of services and other goods specifying the services involved.

Mr. Burt

The information can be provided only at disproportionate cost. The information that is available is in the table. HBAI presents figures in a standard format: only for years 1979, 1981, 1987 and 1988–89—that is, 1988 combined with 1989—before and after housing costs; equivalised for household size and composition; using the median as the average measure for subdivisions of the income distribution; and at April 1992 prices. This is in line with the recommendations made in the stocktaking report produced last year after consultation with independent external analysts.

It is not our practice to produce unequivalised information, nor to present mean averages for sub-divisions of the income distribution.